What's Going On?

[Kathianne]

I suggest reading this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324731304578193770576333616.html

Incompetence in dealing with the wrongly committed. It's long, I'm don't have time for the analysis, but assume folks here have the reading comprehension and background to understand my first sentence.

[SassyLady]

can't get to article without subscribing so didn't read.

[aboutime]

can't get to article without subscribing so didn't read.


Same here. Sorry Kathianne. There's enough SPAM in my email account already.

[mundame]

It's a fiscal cliff article.

WASHINGTON—Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama (http://topics.wsj.com/person/o/barack-obama/4328) called Friday for a return to negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, a day after talks cratered in a very public fashion when Republicans abandoned House Speaker John Boehner (http://topics.wsj.com/person/b/john-boehner/6252)'s backup plan.
In truth, talks to secure a big deficit-reduction deal had already broken down Monday afternoon in the office of Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio), a Wall Street Journal reconstruction shows. Mr. Boehner had been negotiating a deal with the White House to let tax rates rise for upper-income people.
Mr. Boehner, irritated with the White House, was finding it hard to keep his troops in line as details of his negotiations with Mr. Obama leaked out. In the speaker's office just off the Capitol's majestic rotunda that afternoon, he told his top lieutenants that he was already thinking about a pared-down backup plan. "In the absence of an agreement, 'Plan B' is the plan," he told his deputies, according to a script he read them that afternoon.

President Barack Obama and Majority Leader Eric Cantor failed to see eye to eye on talks to resolve the looming fiscal deficit, which broke down this week amid growing acrimony on both sides


http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-VT930_1221bo_D_20121221205701.jpg<cite></cite>

Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

One by one, they came out in favor of Plan B and against the broader deal.
House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) said the new tax revenue the broader plan called for was too high. Then Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), whom Mr. Boehner had spent weeks wooing, said he couldn't sign on because it didn't make structural changes in entitlements.

The speaker went ahead with Plan B, which collapsed Thursday night before he could even bring it to a vote, leaving talks at a perilous standstill just days before the year-end fiscal-cliff deadline. Even if an agreement can be reached by then, both sides expect it to be a small package doing little to tackle the long-term budget woes and deferring the battle until next year.
A review of the negotiations, based on interviews with a dozen aides and lawmakers, suggests the problems lay in Mr. Boehner's inability to coax his rank-and-file to support a deal that raises taxes on higher-income Americans. Another factor was what Republicans saw as President Obama's unwillingness to bend when a deal was in sight, jamming the speaker with a deal his party couldn't swallow.

The negotiations offer little evidence November's election brought the president and House Republicans closer together. If anything, the talks poisoned an already distrustful relationship.
Mr. Boehner could soon face a decision whether to call for a vote on some sort of plan that could avert the cliff's spending cuts and tax increases but might imperil his position if he had to rely on Democrats to pass it.

Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn't reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault.

At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?"

"You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free."
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I suppose they'll do a deal before or just after New Year's. OR it's possible either or both sides actually want the fiscal cliff -------- it sure would clean up that deficit!! But these cliffhangers normally resolve at the last minute or a few days after the last minute, so I've learned to wait and see and not worry about them.

However, I've read that the fiscal cliff would cost us about $6000 in extra withholding tax --- can that be true? Seems like a lot. Hard to believe.